The eclipse you just witnessed was not a once in a lifetime event

There’s another one coming to the USA in 2024. Get ready!

And you thought August 21 was a one-off? Mark April 8, 2024 in your calendar for a little under seven years after the Great American Eclipse comes the Great North American Eclipse, when the Moon-shadow will race across the entire continent once again.

So where does it go? Unlike the eclipse of August 21, 2017, the one on April 8, 2024 goes through Mexico and Canada as well as the USA. After making land at the city of Mazatlan in Mexico and crossing the states of Durango and Coahuila, Totality will sweep across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Vermont and Maine, and New Brunswick and Newfoundland in Canada.

Stand anywhere within the Path of Totality and you’ll get between 3 minutes 30 seconds and 4 minutes 30 seconds of Totality – over a minute more than in 2017.

However, there is one area of the USA where the paths of the 2017 and 2024 shadows cross – Carbondale, Illinois, the ‘Crossroads of the Eclipses‘.

There is another crossroads, too; Austin in Texas will experience Totality on April 8, 2024, but earlier that year on October 14, 2023 will also experience an Annular Solar Eclipse – a kind of partial eclipse better known as a Ring of Fire. It doesn’t get dark, and it’s not possible to see Totality, but it’s still a spectacular sight.